ABC's and 123's

Day 13:  31 For 21 Blog Challenge for Down Syndrome Awareness and Acceptance

I spent part of the summer trying to potty train Bradley, that was dismal... so I tried to teach him some letters and numbers instead.  I have a strong desire to see my son successfully reading a book someday.  If you want the awful truth, I pray for a day when I yell at him to put the book away and come do his chores.  So I guess I have two strong desires: I want to have my son reading and I want him washing dishes.  My girls have the reading part of this equation down cold, it's the chores part that we fight over; as in, they moan dramatically and occasionally stomp their feet while I ignore the drama until they bend to my will and do the dishes.

Anyway, in his IEP, he is supposed to learn his alphabet.  And he's going to learn his letters little chunks at a time.  Because I am Mom, I decided to do the best I could to see if I could unlock his brain and help him learn.  I took cute colored papers in the shape of fish and I put a letter on each one, and then I put all the letters on a small wall that is close to where all his toys live.  Once I put his letters on the wall I then got further inspired and did numbers 1-10 on paper hands.  I put those up too, and it looked so cool.  So then, I was totally excited as we sat in front of the wall together and he pulled the letters off the wall and put them in different locations, and occasionally he copied a letter with me.  So I was totally ready to buy myself a cape and become Super Mom!  I was engaging my little guy and had found a way to capture his attention, and was able to hear him say a few letters.  It was SO exciting!!

And then reality set in.  He quickly lost interest that day...he would go back a bit to it, but he also had to compete with the dog AND the ginger devil that runs amok in our house.  I put the paper fish on this half wall at the edge of the living room, and our cat thinks that half wall is his personal domain. Once up there, his inquisitive little soul discovered these numbers and fish.  And because he and the dog are incahoots; Toby the Ginger Devil, decided to knock the letters and numbers down, and the dog would take them and run.  I walked out to see them in action and realized they were fishing together.  Oh how sweet, grrrr.

So I went ahead and put my cape back in storage and Bradley started school and didn't know any more letters or numbers than when he left school in July.  I was kind of bummed, but I have noticed that little ginger devil has been joining me at desk every time I sit down at the computer, I think he recognizes the letters and numbers.  He might be reading too for all I know.  Brat!

I sent Bradley off to school hoping for the best.  Well placed hopes I think. Well ahead of schedule, he is recognizing letters A through I.  Curious we started testing him, but I also gave him each letter sign too. I too my surprise and joy, he is not only trying to repeat each letter vocally, but he's trying very hard to imitate the letter sign as well!  I LOVE it!!!  I told his teacher that his voice seems connected to his hands.  If he doesn't engage his hands then he has a hard time keeping his hands out of his mouth - a habit of pain management and I think now a coping skill for stress and anxiety.  When I give him a request for him to repeat a letter, he focuses on my hands and if I am signing something then he is trying to sign it back.  Absolutely awesome!  I have other plans in mind that will, I hope, help him learn too and it will include more of those cute fish and I am hoping, less of that ginger devil's help.  But time will tell on that one!

Anyway, all of this has led to other greatness for him, we are hearing more sounds, more word approximations and we are seeing him trying very hard to navigate his world.  In this last week, I have seen him dancing to music, trying to wave to his friends on the bus next to us and signing approximations of "bus" and "friends".  His behaviors that had started sliding backwards, have settled into a steadier and improved motion forward.  Any positive steps towards correcting that behavior is never too tiny, we'll take it all.  Recognizing ABC's and 123's...such a big deal for him and for us.  Such a phenomenal stepping stone for him as he keeps working to bridge one big learning step to another.  So exciting...just so exciting!!! 

Oh and should Toby start sitting here and reading what I am reading or commenting on what I am writing; well, one of us will be living in an insane asylum and believe me when I tell you, I WILL be wearing my Super Mom cape!